DO YOU HAVE AN EYE FOR THE CLOUD?

I had a very pleasant chat with a dear Ministry brother today, I came away very blessed and excited about what we talked about. I then had to go out to a meeting with fellow Pastors, after coming home and having lunch, I began to think about the conversation I had with my friend, and I felt the lord personally challenge me about an important aspect of truth, that had indirectly come out of our conversation.

My readers know I love the fact that God slowly and progressively revealed truth in the O.T. and we see its fulfillment in the New Testament in the Lord Jesus Christ and the Church.

The aspect of truth that I began to think about today is HAVING AN EYER FOR THE CLOUD. The Children of Israel were basically trained to keep one eye on the cloud of God’s glory above the Tabernacle as they went about their daily business, as from time to time the cloud would lift off the Tabernacle, and that God’s people had to pack all their goods up, get into family order, and tribal order, and when the cloud moved , they moved with the cloud and continued to move until the cloud stopped and descended back above the Tabernacle.

There were probably times when God’s people were frustrated and maybe angry when they saw the cloud move, perhaps some fruit or vegetables was almost ready to pick, but they knew that if they did not move THEY WOULD DIE IN THE WILDERNESS. For only where the cloud rested, there was the MANNA and the quails, and there was the WATER that flowed from the rock.

For a long time the early Church walked in the truths of the God’s Word but slowly walked away from those truths and the power of God, until God said enough was enough and through the Reformers major truths were restored to the Church. Not many years later the cloud moved again, but the Reformers rejected the truth of Believer’s Baptism, and this has happened sadly over and over again since those days, and often only a remnant embraced the fresh restored truth WHICH THEY ADDED TO WHAT HAD ALREADY BEEN REVEALED.

At the turn of the 20th century, tens of thousands of believers experienced the same phenomena that the 120 experienced on the Day of Pentecost, they spoke in tongues as the Holy Spirit gave them utterance, and like so many the other truths that came out of the Reformation, this was rejected. Despite the reaction and rejection today the Pentecostal/Charismatic Movement is the largest grouping of Believers within the Christian Church worldwide.

I believe one of the major reasons why the movement has grown so strong internationally is because they seem to have re-invented themselves to make themselves relevant and Contemporary to this generation. I believe with all my heart that METHODS CHANGE BUT THE MESSAGE DOES NOT. The church I was a part of sixty years ago does not seem to exist today. Like all denominations practices can develop that can eventually be a stumbling block and even unhealthy to both other believers and unbelievers, and I have been glad to see them go, but where is the power of the Holy Spirit today say, manifested not only in the Gifts of the Spirit, but in healing, and deliverance what about building New Testament churches according to the pattern of the Word of God, what about Biblical Discipleship????, and the questions go on and on.

Since the beginning of the 20th century the Holy Spirit has brought fresh emphasis on numerous aspects of truth, and every one to my knowledge have been initially embraced, then sadly seen as just a “passing phase” and therefore not added to what God had already revealed.

If it is important and correct New Testament principle that when God restores a truth to His Church, we ADD it and embrace it, and let it be a key in our spiritual progress, so I want to ask myself and my readers do we honestly have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church. Rev. 2:7 NKJV He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

We must let the truth become REVELATION, (and therefore we will not simply discard it) then it will change us and our Churches for the better.

I believe God wants us to build big churches for His glory, so they will impact cities, states and nations.

SO LET US BUILD GOD’S WAY AND WE WILL GET GOD’S RESULTS.